Brown facing one-match suspension for rapid send-off, but where does he rank in the hall of shame?
By Adam Pengilly and Billie Eder
Roosters forward Nathan Brown is facing just a one-match ban for a high shot which resulted in one of the fastest send-offs in NRL history.
The NRL match review committee hit Brown with a grade two careless high tackle charge on Friday morning after the former State of Origin enforcer was marched for a high shot on Manly’s Ben Trbojevic just 30 seconds after coming onto the field.
It means he will miss only the Roosters’ clash against the Dolphins next week if he accepts an early guilty plea. He will be suspended for two matches if he unsuccessfully fights the charge at the judiciary.
Brown, who switched to the Roosters early this season after featuring in last year’s grand final for Parramatta, was the first player sent off in the NRL since Newcastle’s Jacob Saifiti in round two.
But his 30 seconds of shame, which had him marched to the sheds for a hot shower before he even had time to break a sweat, isn’t the fastest in rugby league history.
Adrian Morley gone in a blink for hit on Robbie Kearns
The fastest rugby league send-off on record was during the first Test of the 2003 Ashes series between Australia and Great Britain.
The kick-off from Great Britain was taken by the Kangaroos’ Craig Gower, who passed the ball to prop Robbie Kearns.
Kearns barely had time to catch the ball before he was clipped high by Adrian Morley during the first tackle of the game and hit the deck.
The match officials conferred, and Morley was sent off just 12 seconds into the match.
Peter Kelly beats bugler back to gate during Anzac Day match
In a story that’s gone down in the rugby league history books, Canterbury’s Peter Kelly was sent from the field in the first minute of Bulldogs’ Anzac Day clash with the Rabbitohs in 1986.
The legend goes that the final note of The Last Post could still be heard around the SCG when Kelly was sent off for a high tackle on Rabbitohs winger Ross Harrington after just 16 seconds.
The send-off was said to be so quick that Kelly beat the bugler back to the exit gate.
Two for the price of one during Kangaroos Test
Australian Noel Kelly and New Zealand’s Robin Orchard were both sent packing during a 1967 Test between the neighbouring nations.
The pair lasted just 90 seconds on the field during the second Test of the series at Lang Park after Kelly landed a left hook on the Kiwi for a tackle which left Australian five-eighth Johnny Gleeson flattened.
Two leave the field, but one on a stretcher
It was a grim scene during the 2007 round-one clash between the Knights and the Bulldogs, with star halfback Andrew Johns stretchered from the field in the game’s opening minutes.
Johns was struck in the side of the head by Canterbury heavy-hitter Sonny Bill Williams, who was subsequently marched from the field by referee Tony Archer in the fourth minute of the game.
Newcastle star Andrew Johns is stretchered from the field after a hit from Canterbury’s Sonny Bill Williams.Credit: Tim Clayton
It was later reported that Williams apologised to a groggy Johns in the Newcastle dressing room, and was slapped with a two-match ban for the contact.
Michael Crockett marched at Mt Smart
The Warriors were left with 12 on the field during their 2007 clash against the Bulldogs at Mt Smart Stadium after winger Michael Crockett was sent off in the game’s opening minutes.
Crockett was marched for a high tackle on Canterbury’s Cameron Phelps in the fifth minute, which helped the Bulldogs to a 40-20 victory.
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